So, I leave on June 14th for two months abroad - two months with the barest minimum of English; two months away from the lovely weather of my hometown, Los Angeles; two months that I've barely begun thinking about because I only left Yale yesterday. An adventure, to be sure, but one I really need to start preparing for! I'm excited because I get to stop in Tokyo on the way there, to visit a friend and to enjoy my favorite Japanese foods. After that, I'll be in Harbin, China for two months of intensive Chinese classes, hopefully the equivalent of a full year of Chinese study at Yale. My goal is to be fluent by the end of the program - or at least comfortable enough with the language to have "meaningful conversations," as my high school Chinese teacher used to call them.
I chose Harbin because I didn't want a traditional study abroad experience. Everyone goes to Beijing, so I wanted to look for something different. I was also heavily influenced by the (very few) posts on the Light Fellowship Bulletin Board about the program by past fellows. One of the things I find most intriguing about the CET-Harbin program is that we get to pick a subject of our choice, in addition to our regular Chinese classes, to be instructed in. Following Dr. Zhou's Chinese New Year presentations past, I decided to study comic dialogues - xiang4 sheng (相声). I think I read somewhere once that you sound truly like a native if you can joke in a language (and with the proper emphasis and accent, of course) - the nuances and cultural references involved in joking, after all, require great insight into the language. It also can't hurt to be able to make jokes in coversation. I'm not entirely sure what to expect in terms of how the class will work (we had to submit a basic lesson plan as well as potential textbooks as part of the application, and I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about in those arenas) but I'm really looking forward to the progress I'll make in this class in particular.
What I'm most afraid of right now is losing my ability to remain poised and polite in conversation. My spoken Chinese is serviceable after a year of practicing in class and with my language partner, but in addition to fumbling for vocabulary (and grammar and tones...), I'm quite sure I know nothing about sounding polite and respectful in Chinese. I really hate making people upset, but I know that language and cultural missteps are inevitable, at this stage. Hopefully I don't say anything so insensitive "对不起" can't fix it (dui4 bu4 qi3). I also really hope that my near-obsession with Japanese language and culture and growing interest in Korean language and culture don't distract me too much...I've got to learn Chinese first! Then I can start worrying about learning new languages. I must exercise dishiprine, as my 12-Pack friends would say.
Anyway, I am so grateful that the Light Fellowship program decided to give me a fellowship for the summer, and that the CET program granted me admission. 25 days to Chinaaaaaaa!
